Mis Hermanitos

When I arrived at my host family’s house nearly a week ago, I was immediately content. As so many people have told me about Guatemaltecos, they were very nice and welcoming. They took me in immediately as part of the family: the fourth child, but the oldest. In my Guatemalan family, I have two hermanitas: Jacquelyn, 11, and Melanie, 8; and one hermanito: Dennis, 12. Admittedly at times they are a little overwhelming, but cute and loveable nonetheless.

My house here is very small, no personal space, not even in my own room. I’ll try to paint a picture of it so you can get the idea. We have a door/gate which we enter through. It leads into the little driveway where there is just enough space for their car. On the right we have the comedor (kitchen) and then the parents’ room. Then straight ahead is the kids room where the girls share a bed and Dennis has his own. Next to their room on the right is my room, across from which is the bathroom and the pila (where we get water from). It’s not what most would consider a house, because when you step out of any room, you are outside in the driveway. Think of it almost like a motel. (This also means it gets very cold at night. No interior heat, and my door leads to the cool mountain air... it’s kind of like camping.) It’s very quaint (especially compared to where many of the other volunteers live), but I’m okay with that. I feel I am better experiencing the life of the average Guatemaltecan family. I didn’t come here to be comfortable.

(The pila, where all the water in the house comes from.)

With the house how it is, you can imagine that I have a lot of contact with my family, which is fantastic. That’s how I’m going to learn the culture, integrate into the community, and improve my Spanish. But as I mentioned, sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. The kids are always in my room asking me questions, telling me how lindo (cute) everything I own is, or just staring at me while I do my homework. They really like having a gringa live with them. One day, I went to the tienda with Melanie to buy something and we ran into her aunt (they have about 10 pairs of aunts and uncles in this little town) and she introduced me as her gringa.

(My town, Magdalena. The mountain in the background is the park that we will be working in during training: El Corazon del Agua.)

The last couple nights, though, were fantastic. On Tuesday I played futbol in the street with mis hermanitos and the little neighborkids. It was really fun. We had to pause every few minutes for people, cars and cows to pass. And oddly enough, one of the cars had an Oregon license plate?! Afterwards, I went to stretch in my room, which is strange to them, so instead of having them stare at me in the doorway, I invited them to join in. I taught them all of my stretches, and the whole time they laughed and complained about how much it hurt. Most of them couldn’t really do it, but Melanie, the youngest, was very good at it.

(My kids stretching on my floor.)

On Wednesday, after my 6 hours of Spanish class, I really wanted to get out and go for a good, solid run. The kids wanted to play futbol again, but my stomach was finally feeling like it could handle itself after a few days of diarrhea, and so I really wanted to run. (On a sidenote, all of a sudden the Star-Spangled Banner is blasting from their room. I don’t know why.) Melanie said she wanted to run with me. I was torn: on the one hand, I really wanted to run hard; on the other hand, they really need to get more exercise, and I probably shouldn’t be running alone. So I told her, “bueno.” Of course, all the other kids wanted to come too.

I left the house, four kids in tow, ages 8 to 12. We ran easy for about two blocks and then they started walking and said, “Ya me canse” (I’m already tired). They’re kids, they should have tons of energy! But they really don’t exercise much here. My kids play a lot of computer games. When they do play soccer, it’s a very short field – not much exercise. But I pushed on, teasing them. Melanie kept up just fine, so I teased Dennis that his little sister was beating him. They showed me some pretty cool trails that start just three blocks from my house that lead down to a little park called Florencia, which is quite beautiful. It’s a municipal ecological park that has trails, great views, and some farming as well. But it also has a lot of trash and many locals cutting down the trees for firewood. This is something that, during training, my group is going try to educate people about in another local park, Corazon del Agua (Heart of the Water), that’s up on the mountain behind us. Anyway, we ran about a mile down, then played a little game of soccer: my team won. On the run back, Melanie and I were out in front of the boys. I took that opportunity to talk to her about the importance of exercise and eating healthy. She’s a very smart little girl ... and so cute. I probably won’t run with the kids everyday, but I will try to get them to exercise more, and once I get to my site, maybe I will develop a running club as a secondary project.